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I kid the GM people! It’s just that I lived in Flint, Michigan for the first 11 years of my life and was surrounded by people — and continue to be in contact with many of them — who act as if General Motors didn’t make some pretty awful cars in the 1980s. And not…

Pete Rose was on 97.5 in Philly yesterday and was asked if he suspects that he’ll be inducted into the Hall of Fame after he’s dead. His response: “Well I think that would probably to be honest with you piss a lot of people off if that’s the way it was. I mean it’s just…

Carlos Zambrano tossed six innings of two-run ball against the Mets yesterday, improving to 5-2 with a 4.59 ERA, but pitched through neck pain and afterward went to the hospital for X-rays. According to Bruce Levine of ESPN Chicago doctors found “that the discomfort was coming from a knot in his neck and is mostly…

The Twins have suffered a lot of injuries this year. Columnist Jim Souhan suggests that the problem may be over-training: Thus the modern ballplayer is bigger, faster, stronger, better-trained, and yet seemingly more fragile. Might many of these new-age injuries be the result of over-training? Michael Cuddyer agrees with the over-training thing. In contrast, broadcaster…

According to Bill Ladson of MLB.com the Rangers “have inquired about” Nationals right-hander Todd Coffey as they search for bullpen help with Darren O’Day possibly out for the season and Alexi Ogando all but locked into the rotation. Coffey was a nice low-cost pickup for the Nationals, signing a one-year, $1.35 million deal after the…

Over the weekend Ozzie Guillen explained that he was going to stick with Adam Dunn as the White Sox’s third-place hitter because “this guy is very important in our lineup” and “the only way he’s going to hit is to play him.” At that point Dunn had batted third in 20 straight games, but the…

Joel Sherman’s latest column is about the fury and backlash among Mets fans in the wake of Fred Wilpon’s comments about the team and its best players. And he has some decent observations about how, if you’re a Mets player, you’re not likely to be all that motivated at the moment. But there was one…

2K Sports offered $1 million to the first person to throw a perfect game on their baseball video game MLB 2K11 and a music teacher from Louisina named Brian Kingrey has claimed the prize. Kingrey smartly chose Phillies ace and cover boy Roy Halladay as his pitcher and picked the Astros as his weak-hitting opponent, setting…

Ben Kabak of River Avenue Blues has a good review of the new Ian O’Connor book about Derek Jeter. Which I haven’t read and I don’t really plan to, on the basis that no really good biography can be written about someone whose story is not complete. Which is basically where Ben comes down too.…

Matthew examined the Giants’ various options to replace Buster Posey behind the plate, noting that bringing back Bengie Molina was an iffy proposition because the hefty 36-year-old “didn’t seem to have a whole left last year” and was “awfully immobile behind the plate.” Molina, as you might expect, is very much open to the idea…

Maybe that’s putting it too strongly, but David Cone is big into advanced metrics, citing Fangraphs as his favorite site. Not bad! What say you about sabermetics, David? You know, it’s something I got into more when I stopped playing. I’m a little jealous that I didn’t have this sort of data when I was…

Back in December the Mariners were expected to non-tender Jose Lopez rather than risk giving him a raise on last year’s $3 million salary via arbitration following a season in which he hit just .239 with a ghastly .279 on-base percentage and .609 OPS. Instead the Rockies stepped in at the last minute and traded…

In light of hedge fund manager David Einhorn buying into the Mets, The Wall Street Journal makes an observation this morning: Einhorn is poised to join a growing number of sports team stakeholders who have come to this highly eccentric vocation bearing one basic skill: the ability to manage enormous sums of money. Over the past…

Commissioner Selig, Hank Aaron, scads of current and former Twins players and thousands of fans turned out at Target Field yesterday for a memorial service for Harmon Killebrew. The details of the service can be read here. And at the risk of creating isolated dust storms in the vicinity of your computer, I embed…

If there is one person whose opinion of the Buster Posey injury is worth hearing it’s Ray Fosse. Who, if you’re unaware, suffered a pretty bad injury that seriously impacted his career when, as a 23-year-old, he was bowled over at home plate by Pete Rose in the 1970 All-Star Game. It’s worth noting, though,…

I said in the recaps this morning that I think the tone of mourning that has surrounded Buster Posey‘s injury is a bit much. But in my mind it’s preferable to this, from the AZ Snakepit blog: But, let’s be brutally honest. While on one level, it’s a terrible thing, there’s a dark corner of…

Marlins 1, Giants 0: Anibal Sanchez with the shutout and Ryan Vogelsong took a tough loss. And at the risk of being a big jerk here, am I crazy for thinking that the articles about the Giants that have taken on a tone of mourning over the Posey injury are a bit much? It sucks.…

The Royals made a couple of roster moves after Thursday’s 6-5 extra-innings loss to the Orioles. First, Kansas City gave cash to the Rockies for veteran right-hander Felipe Paulino, who’ll operate in middle relief for the Royals beginning Friday. Then, to clear a roster spot, setup man Robinson Tejeda was designated for assignment. The 29-year-old…